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Marinaded Mackerel

A baked dish of whole mackerel marinated with vinegar, spices, butter, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Marinaded Mackerel

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the mackerel and place them whole in a deep dish.

  2. Add vinegar, water, salt, peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves, bay leaves, shallots, sugar, butter, lemon slices, parsley, celery, crushed bell peppers, fennel, and sea kale.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the dish tightly and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  2. Sprinkle baker's raspings over the fish and top with fresh lettuce leaves.

  3. Re-cover the dish and serve when the lettuce is nicely cooked.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in the marinade.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that flavours the fish and helps firm its flesh.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the flavour and keeps the fish moist.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, sweet aromatic flavour to the marinade.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma to the marinade and fish.

The step that matters

Covering the dish tightly while baking. A tight cover traps steam so the fish cooks gently in the vinegar liquid. Without it, the liquid reduces and the flesh can dry out or cook unevenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, shallot, sugar, butter, lemon, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, shallot, sugar, butter, lemon, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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